Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!gatech!uflorida!umd5!brl-adm!brl-smoke!gwyn
From: gwyn@brl-smoke.ARPA (Doug Gwyn )
Newsgroups: comp.std.c
Subject: Re: Why is K&R 2nd edition out before ANSI standard?
Message-ID: <7894@brl-smoke.ARPA>
Date: 15 May 88 18:55:48 GMT
References: <3313@pasteur.Berkeley.Edu>
Reply-To: gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB) <gwyn>)
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab (BRL), APG, MD.
Lines: 15

In article <3313@pasteur.Berkeley.Edu> seitz@cory.Berkeley.EDU (Matthew Eric Seitz) writes:
>Why didn't K&R wait for the final, approved ANSI standard before writing
>K&R 2nd edition?

Obviously Brian and Dennis are the only ones who can fully answer this.
I gather from private communications that they wanted to get the 2nd
Edition out as a "10th Anniversary" publication, and that it was felt
that nothing significant was likely to change between the draft proposed
ANS used as a reference for the 2nd Edition and the final ANS.  The few
changed that were anticipated were handled adequately.  Notice, for
example, the way they mentioned "noalias" in the 2nd Edition.  Whether
or not "noalias" stayed in the ANS, the book had it covered.

My feeling is that a 3rd Edition will not be necessary to properly
reflect the final ANS; the 2nd Edition should do just fine.